Build or Buy? Not so fast...

Ok, ok, so we've all been confronted with the whole "build vs. buy" debate...maybe even from multiple sides. I think one thing that this whole SOA/BOM/EAI/EDA and now Interaction Management progress has brought to light is that it may not be as simple as "build vs. buy" anymore.

Tech groups -- especially tech groups within a non-tech company -- are often tasked with trying to decide a)should we build it ourselves or buy something and then customize it to our needs, and then b)if we decide to buy, what product(s) should we buy? And, often groups that would want to buy but then get into the "b" branch there get overwhelmed by a given product or set of products and convince themselves, "You know what? We should just build this thing ourselves anyway, because we'll spend man years customizing this other stuff to our needs anyway."

A big problem with that is the question, "What about the business?!" Sure, the end result of that approach may be that you get a perfect fit for the given company...but it more than likely will be that it takes way too long to be delivered, doesn't work as advertised, and the business has almost certainly moved on to other initiatives and needs by the time it's done.

So, what does an enabling technology need to do to help fix this? While it may seem obvious, it's worth saying: it needs to provide both a foundation on which savvy tech groups can build as well as plenty of richness from day one that the business team can immediately sink their teeth into. By doing this, more SOA/BPM/Interaction Management initiatives will be successful, will be greeted more openly by business users (and that's who we're trying to keep happy here, right?), and ultimately do a better job of delivering on the promises we make about them every day.